Hand held and powered tube cutters are known in the prior art and they are useful in cutting tubes or pipes on the work site and in restricted spaces. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,278 discloses a powered tube cutter, but it is not one which is self-adjusting for different diameters of tubes, and its cutting blade does not continuously feed in but instead it notches in. U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,911 requires manual adjustment for the diametrical size of the tube and it has only a fixed cutting feed rate. Also, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,672, the cutter cuts through a pipe of only one size in a setting of a pre-loaded cutting wheel and support rollers which appear to cause initial unacceptable dents in the tube. Still further, the prior art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,196 has inefficient constant feed systems with undue shock loads from loss of contact between the feed roll and the rolling surface in the tube location area.
An object of the present invention is to provide a powered tube cutter which automatically adjusts for different diametrical sizes of tubes within a range designed for the particular tool of this invention. Further, it is capable of adjustments for selecting the amount of cutting penetrations for each revolution of the cutter around the tube and thus it is suitable for chipless cutting of different materials, such as plastic and copper, and for harder materials, such as steel and titanium.
Other objects and features of the tool of this invention include that of a self-centering cutting mechanism which automatically adjusts to tube diameter within a selected range and which has an access head for easy application onto and removal from the tube. Further, the tool has a cutting blade and rollers which automatically move in unison toward and away from the tube, and the movement is continuous throughout each revolution around the tube and is not in notching stages.
Still further, the tool has an adjustable feed rate which is useful for different material hardnesses. Also, the tool cutter itself can be driven through self-contained battery power or from another power tool which readily drivingly connects to the tool of this invention. There is an automatic feed of the cutting blade into the tube, and that is achieved through a feed drive where the rate can be controlled. Thus, there is a drive arrangement for moving the cutter blade around the tube and there is also a feed arrangement for moving the cutter blade radially inwardly on the tube in the cutting process. The operative positions for the cutting action are automatically achieved and are under the control of a single button control, for instance.
Prior to each cutting action, the tool is automatically placed in a tube-receiving mode and is thus ready to cut.